It's never been cooler to be country, but Post Malone isn't just here to jump on a trend — even if it's also a particularly profitable time to be entering this corner of the music industry. Rather, this genre-hopping has been planned for nearly a decade: “WHEN I TURN 30, I'M GOING TO BECOME A COUNTRY/FOLK SINGER,” the rapper said at the time. tweeted in 2015. And at 29 years old, and with her debut country album F-1 billion Officially out, Post Malone is a year ahead of schedule.
It's no secret that as F-1 billion As country music officially began to take shape, Malone eagerly threw himself into Nashville’s idiosyncratic creative scene. In recent months, he’s spoken openly about his time spent in the songwriters’ rooms of the nondescript houses that dot 16th and 17th Avenues, where some of the best songs tend to take shape. There are rules to the way the country music business works, some of which are said, some of which are never mentioned; Malone wanted to learn them all.
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The impression that a superficial listening gives of F-1 billion The thing is, Malone loves country music. He's a kid in a candy store who's assembled an impressive array of guests, with 15 of the LP's 18 tracks included. (A mid-morning release day, F-1 Trillion — Long Bed It came with nine more tracks from Posty alone, a release pattern not unlike Taylor Swift's. Department of tortured poets (A release that this writer, at least, hopes doesn't become a trend.)
Post Malone is credited as the writer of every song. A large portion of the co-writing and production comes courtesy of Charlie Handsome, who has extensive credits in the hip-hop realm and has been working with Malone since 2015. Malone rounds out the record with a team of true country hitmakers, including some members of the inner circle that helped send Morgan Wallen straight to the top of the charts, including Music Row figures like Ashley Gorley and ERNEST. As hard as it may be to admit, “I Had Some Help,” which features the controversial Wallen, is… a lot of fun. It’s catchy, effortless, and infectious, and the steel guitar is the icing on the cake.
But the album’s best moments are actually the places that are more eccentric and far from the mainstream sound, particularly the duet with Sierra Ferrell, a superb, genre-blending singer-songwriter whose presence feels mystical. Their joint work, “Never Love You Again,” is a nostalgic tune that would fit well on the Opry stage (where Malone performed for the first time earlier this week). There’s a George Jones and Tammy Wynette quality to “Never Love You Again,” when two voices come together in just the right way and that unidentifiable magic happens.
In fact, most of the collaborations are solid. Unsurprisingly, Dolly Parton slays on “Have the Heart” — it’s always a pleasure to see her let loose the way she does on the song’s bridge — and there may even still be some of the rawness of her 2023 rock work left in the booth. It’s scientifically impossible for Chris Stapleton to have a bad vocal performance, making “California Sober” a welcome addition even if it doesn’t offer any life-changing lyrics. Let’s hope more listeners discover the brilliance of Billy Strings, who lends his otherworldly talents to “MEXICO.”
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